The Kingmaker

The A Team: Another Dr. Nisk Encounter aka The Houdini Dude (for April 4, 2015)

22

AUG/15

Six hours later – the next morning – the Spyglass lets Radriar know he injected the potion in the vessel and then hid in the corner of the room. The Spyglass reports it saw a cloaked person enter the room many times. Then another person enters. The second humanoid looked like a grey, female wolf on two legs. The cloaked figure and the wolfish female talk a bit and then leave. They two were out of ear shot from the Spyglass but according to him it looked like they were having an arguement about something and the doctor finally relented. The doctor kills the sacrifice and banishes the demon. Before leaving the Spyglass hears the wolfish one say to the doctor: “Not to worry that they can walk through battle in Katheer and save the Mother’s Children and leash any of the fallen they choose.”

Karis allows the party to borrow her airship – with her crew under the capable Captain Kassida; Gunner Zeus and first mate Helena – to travel to Katheer, Qadira. The flight takes three days and there are no problems along the way. The A Team is dropped off at the northern end of the Northern Tapir Forest just south of the city. The captain says she’ll remain airborn until instructions are given. Eldaron takes on a servant girl disguise, Sylari makes herself look like a maid, Raidriar changes to look like an Absolonium Noble and Zenia uses her Garb of the Mysterious Stranger which cause people not to remember anything specific about her. So dressed, the adventurers head north on camels Eldaron summons. Raidriar has trouble riding his but under the calming presence of Karis’s husband the camel is calmed so the religious one can ride safely. At the edge of the forest where the Ketz Desert begins to assert itself the party starts to hear the sounds of battle. The party sees Qadira soldiers go by and we join them discretely. They all go into a giant green tent. Inside is a knight who is instructing various groups on where to go on the front lines. He plans to make a push back to the Pashman River. A tall spire-like floating building (250 feet tall and 125 feet wide) is raining fire down on the city of Katheer and Taldorian golems are attacking the city on the ground. Zenia uses her Falcon Range ability to see the spire better. She reports the being able to see balconies on the floating structure; fire suddenly blasts out the the spire to killing thirteen soldiers near the A Team. A hospital is then hit and Raidriar jumps into action to look for survivors. The rest of the party joins the battle.

The the chaos of battle Raidriar sees Dr. Nisk between two buildings and moves to pursue him. Suddenly a gray, furry bipedal creature appears in front of him thrusting two Kitana swords into his chest. They grapple. The wolf lady eventually eviscerates Raidriar killing him and shattering his armor. He resurrects immediately surprising his foe who tries to shoot him and misses. She runs. Meanwhile Zenia uses “Hide in Plain Sight” to cover Eldaron from the golems and soldiers and Sylari uses her insanely quickness to start a tornado to help destroy the spire. Eldaron uses his powerful magic to take control of the spire. He crashes the building into the ground covering it up with earth and sand. He then opens a fissure below it using “Earthquake” sinking the structure even more. Unfortunately Sylari’s F5 tornado she creates gets away from her. She and Eldaron get sucked into the tornado. Eldaron uses “Control Wind” to save himself and Sylari from the terrible winds. Radriar anchors himself to the ground while Zenia does not have to do anything due to her abilities as a ranger. Once safe from the wind Eldaron uses his powerful magic to open a fissure under the buried citidel so that lava can be used to finish it off. By the end of the encounter all of Katheer has been destroyed.

Qadiran soldiers soon find the group and ask them to dig up the buried vault. Sixteen hours later it is dug up. That night the group does not pull guard duty for the vault and return to the barracks. Using “Faerie Fire” as a distraction and their stealth abilities, the group sneaks away from the barracks unseen and make their way back to the vault finding the guards dead and the golden doors to the vault wide open. Realizing they are too late to stop Dr. Nisk the group uses their redo spell ability to turn back the clock one day. Upon the spell working the group immediately goes to the vault’s location. Elderon places earth over the party to hide them while they dig towards the vault. Eventually it’s unearthed and Sylari goes to work on picking the locks. Unfortunately she triggers one which causes her to fall into the vault and be attacked by a Terrask (giant dinosaur looking animal). It kills her. Before dying she is able to communicate what attacked her. Eldaron uses an elemental to fetch her body whereby he resurrects her. The monster is soon dealt with and the party enters the vault to find it full of treasure. Zenia and Eldaron summon twelve air elementals to move the treasure via a portal to their home Eldaron creates. Eventually the party notices elementals dying within sixty feet of a door within the vault. Scrying Eldaron figures out Dr. Nisk and his companion are on the other side picking out certain items. They leave via their own portal and Dr. Nisk throws a device into the room that immediately starts dissolving everything. The party leaves through their portal and manages to save about 18% of the items from the room Dr. Nisk was in.

Karis uses gollums to move the treasure while the party sifts through it for useful items. Afterwards they work together on improving their country’s navy. Twixt informs the group that there is a rumor of a city of giants within the Mushfens and that Dr. Nisk’s allies are called Hood and Leander. Sylari learns from her network that Absalom is next on Taldor’s list but it is not going to be done immediately. They also inform her that Hood is some type of weird wolf race. She asks the network these three questions: 1) What are the weaknesses of the Taldorian gollums? 2) Who does Dr. Nisk work for? 3)Who does Hood work for?